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A couple of weeks ago, 17 days to be precise, we linked to a posting on FirefighterHourly about what Jay offered up as the “dumbest quote ever from a fire chief” (HERE).

Well, I think we have a new champion, folks. One of our loyal readers in Massachusetts sent along this ARTICLE from the Arlington Advocate that was published last Wednesday. The story is covering the delay in opening of a new fire station in Arlington (Massachusetts) because the fire chief decided to not include the planned sprinkler system, yet failed to change the building plans accordingly to increase the number of exit doors.

The article itself gets into the complicated formualae for exit doors, so I won’t say any more about that part here. But I’m sure that by now your ears have perked up over the report that a Fire Chief actually decided to remove a sprinkler system from a new firehouse. Doesn’t this go against everything that we’ve been preaching for 100 years that the best and most reliable fire protection device is a sprinkler system? What kind of example is this when on the other hand the state legislature is passing laws requiring sprinklers in public occupancies?

The Park Circle fire station
AFD photo

You’re probably wondering why a fire chief would even consider such a folly. The Advocate quotes Fire Chief Allan McEwen thusly:

McEwen said he decided to eliminate the sprinkler system from the plan because of water pressure concerns and the amount of space the system would occupy. (emphasis by Firegeezer)

Hey, I’m only passing along what the newspaper printed. I find that a little preposterous myself. I’ve never heard of anybody complaining about a sprinkler system taking up too much space.

But wait, there’s more! That’s not the quote that I’m submitting for the championship trophy. A little farther down the story is this jewel:

“What most people don’t understand is, sprinklers aren’t meant to put out the fire,” McEwen said. “They are strictly a life saving apparatus meant to control the fire, to help people escape a burning building…but the sprinklers themselves aren’t meant to put out fire, they are meant to control it to give people time to escape.”

I’ll give you a minute to catch your breath after that one. But I’ve got to initially give Chief McEwen the benefit of the doubt here. I just can’t believe that any firefighter, let alone a chief officer, would actually say such a thing. And knowing how reliable local low-budget newspapers can be sometimes, I wouldn’t bet the paycheck on the accuracy of this without looking into it a little further.

Before we insist that Jay Lowery send the Alfred C. Newman trophy up from South Carolina, let’s see if we can get some help from the jakes up in Massachusetts. Can anybody up there fill us in on what’s going on in Arlington? Is this typical of the type of public information coming out of that department? Or is it a case of an inexperienced reporter misconstruing a quote?

While we’re waiting to hear from them, let’s get the equipment checked out. I’ll go start the coffee.

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